


Baby rattlesnakes

by ThedragonsTreasure



Category: Thor (Movies), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Jotunn Loki (Marvel), Jotunn | Frost Giant, Loki (Marvel) Gets a Hug, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Nightmares, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Valkyrie Gets a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 14:22:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13526133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThedragonsTreasure/pseuds/ThedragonsTreasure
Summary: “You’re…blue?” She said slowly.What the hell was he supposed to say to that? She had no doubt killed thousands of his kind. Her posture was stiff, muscles tensed, her eyes keeping a close watch on him. “It’s complicated. Long story short. I’m king -Laufey’s biological son whom Odin stole when I was a couple days old but never bothered to inform me about that. I was lead to believe that I was Odin’s true son my whole life until I discovered the fact myself recently.” He searched for a response patiently expecting: anger, pity, disgust, but instead he got indifference.“Yeah, good luck with that.” This was a waste of time. She walked back out the door. "Bye, Lackey!”The nerve on that woman! “It’s Loki!” he shouted only to be disrupted by her slamming the door. Fine I can play that game too. Loki ran after her but when he got to the corridor there was nobody in sight.“Valkyrie!?”





	Baby rattlesnakes

**Author's Note:**

> Hi beautiful people. So this was something I wrote while procrastinating. I welcome critic. Also, there are wayyy too little not slashy Thor and Loki Ragnarök stories. Love you!  
> Important! I might write a second chapter in a couple month that goes more in-debt about the ending so you might want to bookmark the story.

Falling, falling, falling, falling, falling, falling…always just falling. It felt like being trapped beneath an ocean. There was no air. He gasped and gasped, hands trying to rip his throat open for even a single breath, it’s irrational but in here, what was? There was no time. Time was only movement. The sun will rise tomorrow but without any movement, how could you prove time even existed. The only thing that made sense was falling. He had always been falling and could not remember a time without falling.

Drowning. The pressure was slowly cracking his innards together and shattering his bones apart into a million pieces, the sound of it made his ears bleed. But there was no sound at all. Without oxygen as a transmitter, the sound waves couldn’t reach his ears. It was all in his head. It was frustrating and most of all: painful. So, he screamed. His screams continued for hours until his throat was too sore to make a sound but the ironic part is; not a single sound had left his mouth.

Laughing, no, wait, crying, pathetic. He couldn’t tell the difference anymore, perhaps they had always been the same thing. A joke nobody had bothered let him in on. For some reason, he smiled at that thought. Somehow it felt familiar.

When he opened his eyes, cold hard floor greeted him. Land. Loki felt relief spread from his heart to the very ends of his ice-cold fingers. Laughter erupted from his lungs. To an outsider it would have appeared that the second prince had finally snapped for good, they would have been wrong. Loki just felt grateful. Grateful even when he had lost everything. He was the god of chaos, always willing to evolve. On Sakaar, on Asgard, on Sanctuary.

Norns, he just wanted to hug Thor right now. The last piece of home. Something stable, his rock, something that would never turn his back on him. But Thor had proved him wrong, he had left him; he had left him in excruciating pain without certainty when the torture would end–if it ever would.

The pain from that, combined with his encounter with Strange had resurfaced some carefully buried memories. Memories he was now having nightmares of. Thor’s deed had shown him that Thor wasn’t something he could just take for granted, so he had decided to come back to Asgard, besides, he was starting to become predictable. You could always trust a dishonest man to lie but you could never know what the honest ones will do.

Loki panted for a minute on his hands and knees, just feeling the ground and enjoying the cool air. Blue. His hands were blue! Loki jumped back a little. He had made progress at accepting his heritage, not a monster, just blue. How many timed had he tried to convince himself of that? He just sometimes, forgot. Two days after Odin’s death, Loki had looked at himself in the mirror in his true form memorized every line, every difference. The conclusion had been acceptable. Just like the spell with which Odin had kept Hela at bay, the spell that made sure Loki’s heritage didn’t reveal itself was now gone. He still looked Asgardian–most of the time.

Holes. There were holes in his clothes in the spots where the blue had spread. Loki estimated that maybe it was caused by the dreams. Maybe his unconscious was acting up; he was somehow activating his Jotun ability to give a frostbite when frightened. An innate defense, a bit like when baby rattlesnakes got scared and bit something but they injected way too much poison because they hadn’t yet learned how to control the amount.

 

* * *

* * *

Not again!

She was sleeping, peacefully, they–she and her fellow Valkyries– had all been dancing and fighting playfully around a campfire. Valkyrie was laughing at her friend’s horrible attempt at playing the drums. Her name was Lua. She was the most beautiful girl she had ever met. Her bright smile lit the whole place up and her eloquent laugh made Valkyrie want to cry of happiness.

Lua walked to the fire to warm her hands. Melting. Her hands began to melt. The sound of the drums quickened, deepened, her ears felt like they were. Lua looked at her smiling and started whispering, “You could have saves us” over and over again while she just smiled. Valkyrie looked around her desperately; now all her friends were dying swallowed up by the growing flames, begging for her to save them as their skin started to melt from the fire’s heat. She couldn’t take it anymore. Now her own skin was in flames. It hurt so much. Make it stop. Make it stop! pleasemakeitstopithurtsithurtskillmekillme!

She woke up thinking it had been real.

She started coughing, trying clear the smoke. There was none. Even if the impulse to put out the non-existent flames was still strong. Sounds of soft weeping reverberated through her wall getting her attention. Slowly she stood up, walked from her door to the door where the sound was coming from only to find herself standing in front of Loki’s room, if you could call it that due to its small size.

How noble of him to pick the smallest room. In a way, it did make sense as the most people on the ship were children or women with families to share a room with. But why? He didn’t stroke her as the modest type.

Someone knocked on his door. “You okay in there, Lackey?”

She almost sounded like she cared. Why would she care? Loki tried to make his voice strong but failed spectacularly. “Why?” How would she even know what had happened? Loki fixed his torn t-shirt and thin, blue pants with magic. It was too Deam hot to wear leather on a ship full of people and bad air-conditioning; the perfect combination for a heat-stroke.

“Well, you were screaming for instance.” she said with a serious but bored tone,” We have thin walls here. You woke me up.” It was a lie.

The door creaked, Loki tried to compose himself, act like nothing had happened. He got to his feet and straightened his clothes, too late she had already stepped inside, jumped right to his bed and made herself comfortable, only to find the blankets dripped in Loki’s sweat. “Ew.“ She jumped off his bead.

“Why is it so hot in here, anyway?” The room began to remind her too much of her nightmare making her feel like she was still surrounded by smoke. She coughed but disguised it as just being impatient.

He said it like it was the obvious thing ever. “To save energy.”

“You’re…blue?” She said slowly.

What the hell was he supposed to say to that? She had no doubt killed thousands of his kind. Her posture was stiff, muscles tensed, her eyes keeping a close watch on him. “It’s complicated. Long story short. I’m king -Laufey’s biological son whom Odin stole when I was a couple days old but never bothered to inform me about that. I was lead to believe that I was Odin’s true son my whole life until I discovered the fact myself recently.” He searched for a response patiently expecting: anger, pity, disgust, but instead he got indifference.

“Yeah, good luck with that.” This was a waste of time. She walked back out the door. “Well, my room is much cooler, maybe the cooling system is broken or something. Bye, Lackey!”

The nerve on that woman! “It’s Loki!” he shouted only to be disrupted by her slamming the door. Fine I can play that game too. Loki ran after her but when he got to the corridor there was nobody in sight.

“Valkyrie!?”

“Yeah?”, came from the next door. Loki facepalmed thinking: stupid, stupid, stupid. How did he not have gotten familiar with the residents next door?

The door wasn’t locked, the doors had no locks, they had the Grandmaster to thank for it. Loki just pushed the door in. “Wow, why does the amount of booze no surprise me?” The room contained at least 80 bottles of alcohol, a large bed, a mirror and a closet. Loki’s gaze locked on to the annoyed Valkyrie whose face was saying: What the f**k do you want?

She was right, the temperature was much cooler in here. He walked to her bed and jumped on it, just Like Valkyrie had done, he then raised his eyebrows and smiled at her, the kind of smile that said: you gonna do something about it? I dare you.

“Piss off, kid!” she said. She tried to kick him out but he was prepared. He grabbed her leg and threw her across the room. She landed on her feet gracefully, like the experienced fighter that she was. They locked eyes, grinned and made a silent agreement: oh, it’s on, baby.

Loki’s dagger materialized in his hand but Valkyrie caught his hand before he got the chance to do anything. It came as a surprise when she grabbed him by the waist and threw him towards the wall. “Aaaah!” he yelped.

“Get help, he’s dying!” she mocked and laughed as Loki was about to hit the wall but instead, he went straight through the wall leaving a Loki-sized hole in it. Valkyrie rubbed her neck watching the floor.

They both stopped in front of the now hole to marvel what they were going to do about it. “Okayyy. It’s a draw!” Loki joked, threw his hands up dramatically and walked back to her bed. She followed him.

Watching his red eyes, “What did you dream about?” Valkyrie asked.

The question caught him off guard. Loki looked at her like she had just said the stupidest thing in the world. “Give me one good reason to tell you that.”

“You watched my worst nightmare on Sakaar without my permission. And if that wasn’t bad enough, you also showed it to me. Do you have any idea how hard I tried to forget it?” she looked at him accusingly and buried her head in her hands.

Guilt swelled up in his stomach, you’re getting soft, he told scolded himself but still told her all about his fall, making only some vague comment about Sanctuary, where you prayed to Death every day.

Begged for her to put you out of your misery and take you to her sweet embrace, or enjoyed sending others to her kingdom, taking great enjoyment of the music that people’s bones made while been cracked.

But he would not in any circumstance tell her about Him, master, the titan, my lord, those were the names he had been allowed to address him with. The monster, they had tried to make Loki think as a God.

It was still too fresh. Just the word Thanos made his stomach turn, his blood want to escape somewhere deep inside him where it could never be found, making him look even paler that before. She understood not to pressure him. Understood the need to smother bad memories.

They were now tucked tightly under the blankets staring at the sealing. At the end of his story, Valkyrie wrapped her arm loosely around his midsection while he twisted his fingers around hers.

Her smell was intoxicating, comforting and overpowering. It was a mixture of cinnamon and alcohol. Strong enough to calm him but still unique enough not to resurface painful memories of his mother. He smiled, feeling content and warm.

Gazing into her eyes he thought, this is not a bad way to fall asleep, while Valkyrie was thinking the exact same thing.

He could feel his eyelids giving up the fight and shutting, getting ready for waking up next to something truly breath-taking.


End file.
